The Ride

Tomorrow, I will take Paul Sturm, Pullman’s Superintendent, along with a couple of professors to Kyoto. So today, I incorporated an exploratory trip on my bike. I had to find the best way to their hotel and to find the best way to the nearest train station. I have only have ridden on the Hanshin line twice. Last week was the only trip I have had on it from Umeda to Nishinomiya and I have never been in the Koshien station. There shouldn’t be any problems.

I left the house about 9:30. I hit the bank and then backtracked to the Kitaguchi station to check a book out at the bookstore. In the states it is listed for 12.00. Here it is 2600 yen, almost twice the price. I will wait until someone visits or I go home to get it. Then I rode toward the station. I wound through the neighborhood and got to the Novatel Hotel around 11:30. The station is only 100 meters from the hotel, so it will be an easy walk in the morning.

The next item on my agenda was a trip to Costco. I had to ride west to the river and then north along the river to the pedestrian bridge I have been using. On the Nishinomiya side they had some big cross-country running event. There were several hundred people along the river. It was a slow bike ride. On the Amagasaki side there were the usual baseball games.

I am getting to know Amagasaki better. There are some landmark buildings, roads and businesses I look for. One building has a dinosaur peeking around the corner and an ape on the roof. There are only a couple of roads that cross east to west which do not have a lot of car traffic. The sidewalks in Amagasaki are very rough; it is best to ride on the roads.

Costco was the same trip. This time, I didn’t buy any pie. I bought 12 apples instead. Since I actually brought some money this time. I picked up some things that we will need when Chrissy gets back. I have been using the powder creamer, something Chrissy doesn’t really like. As I checked out, I ended up with about 30 pounds of goods, some 8500 yen worth. It is always challenging getting it back on an hour long bike ride on rough sidewalks and windy roads. My single bungee cord, holding my box on the back of my bike, wasn’t quite enough, so I stopped and bought another one at the 100 yen shop on the way home.

It was a gorgeous day. I got home about 3:30. I think I spent about 4 hours on the bike today. The temp was in the upper 60s, just a touch cool. Teachers told me yesterday that we are a month off on the weather. We are experiencing October type weather. That’s good. Chrissy won’t miss the leaves turning color in Kyoto when she returns on Thursday.